Chinese language for beginners : Mandarin Chinese HSK1-HSK3 (Udemy.com)
Learn Chinese language : Focus on active learning and practical Mandarin Chinese : Chinese for beginners : HSK1 to HSK3
Created by: Kamil Domanski
Last updated October 2024
Our take
Based on the ratings of 6,169 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in October 2024. No course pays to be reviewed.
Kamil Domanski, a language tutor based in China, built this as three stacked courses: HSK1, HSK2 and HSK3. It runs about 26 hours across 152 lectures, with flashcards, downloadable audio and PDFs for the lessons. Each lesson goes from new words, to a conversation or story, to review and homework. It assumes no Chinese at all. The description says learning characters is optional, though strongly recommended. Nearly 47,600 students have enrolled, so it is a well-used pick for the basics.
Reviewers like the way sentences are used to explain words, and one calls the pace perfect and says the teacher encourages them to guess and think, which helps with speaking. Two reviewers, one who lived in China and one who had studied before, call it a good refresher. The complaints are fairly consistent. One reviewer says HSK1 is detailed but HSK2 and 3 get faster and thinner. Another wants a clearer rule for when to use shì. Others mention static slides with voice-over, a non-standard accent, and missing resources in later sections.
HSK3 is the bulk of the course, 111 lectures and about 15 hours, so most of the time goes there. The course was last updated in October 2024. Of roughly 6,200 ratings, 3,915 are five stars, and the average is 4.8. Treat it as a solid, structured vocabulary and listening course, and add separate practice for speaking and writing. It suits steady self-study better than anyone who needs a live-style teacher.
Pros
- Each lesson runs words, then a conversation or story, then review and homework
- Downloadable audio and PDFs for every lesson, plus flashcards for review
- HSK1 is explained word by word, and the pace suits true beginners
- Three HSK levels in one purchase, 152 lectures and about 26 hours
Cons
- HSK2 and HSK3 get faster and less detailed than HSK1, per reviewers
- Mostly static slides with voice-over, with no demos of how to shape the mouth
- Some find the teacher's accent non-standard and the lessons dull without extra study
HSK1 is very good. Explained very detail word to word. From HSK 2 to 3, the lessons are getting faster and less detailed.
Listed for all levels, but it really fits true beginners up to HSK3. No prior Chinese needed.
Featured in our guide: The Best Language Learning Courses on Udemy in 2026
What you will learn
- Learn common used Chinese language words and sentences
- Carry on a conversation in Mandarin Chinese
- Speak Chinese language around your home and at work
- Gain confidence in learning and speaking Chinese
- Read Mandarin Chinese characters (Simplified characters)
- Understand basic Mandarin Chinese grammar rules
- Understand the different tones in Chinese language
- Understand Chinese characters
Course content
3 sections · 152 lectures · 26 hours of video 26 articles
- 1HSK1 3 free previews23 lectures · 5.4 hours
- 2HSK218 lectures · 5.9 hours
- 3HSK3111 lectures · 15 hours
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- People who would like to learn Mandarin Chinese in an effective and fun way. The course is for beginners and/or people who want to take HSK1 and/or HSK2 exams.
- People who live and work in China
- Learners who are interested in Chinese language
- Students enrolled in a Chinese language school or majoring in Chinese in college
- People who travel to China
- People who would like to communicate with their Chinese friends
What you need before you start
- No background knowledge is needed as the course is made for those who are new to the Chinese language
How it compares
Against the other 535 rated Udemy courses in Language Learning on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.8 out of 5higher than 82% of them
- Reviews6,169#50 of 536 by number of reviews
- Length26.3 hourslonger than 91% of them
- Last updatedOctober 2024more recently than 55% of them
Course Description
In this course you can start learning Chinese language from scratch or refresh it if you have learned it long ago and you have forgotten a lot. You don't need any knowledge of Chinese language to attend the course, but you can be on HSK1 or HSK2 level as well (just skip the parts you already know). We have made this course for people who are looking to learn Mandarin Chinese in a simple and easy way.
After you finish the course, you'll be able to manage most communication in Chinese when traveling or living in China.
Learn Chinese language with lessons made by real teachers.
The course includes HSK1, HSK2 and HSK3.
HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) or the Chinese Proficiency Test is an international standardized exam which assesses non-native Chinese speakers' Chinese language proficiency. It contains the most common Mandarin Chinese words and sentences. It fits all Chinese language learners, not only people who want to take the exams.
You will gain confidence in using most common Chinese language words and phrases learned in this course
HSK1 Course includes 150 words, Around 200 sentences, 19 conversations and one HSK1 test.
HSK2 Course includes 150 words, Around 300 sentences, 17 long conversations and one HSK2 test.
HSK3 Course includes 300 words, Around 900 sentences, 25 stories and one HSK3 test.
The course includes flashcards which can help you review and practice words and sentences from the lessons in a easy and funny way. We also added downloadable audio for every lesson (so you can keep learning while driving, running etc.) and PDFs. With all these things learning Chinese will be even easier!
This course is easy to follow as it is divided into 3 parts:
Part 1: learn new Chinese words and sentences
Part 2: learn a conversation or a story
Part 3: review and homework
The course will help you with:
1. Practicing both speaking and listening
2. Understanding the most useful Chinese grammar rules
3. Learning most useful words and phrases
After studying HSK1 course you can understand and use very simple Mandarin Chinese phrases, meet basic needs for communication and possess the ability to further your Chinese language studies
After studying HSK level 2 you have an excellent grasp of basic Mandarin Chinese and can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
After studying HSK3 you can communicate in Chinese at a basic level in your daily, academic and professional life. You can manage most communication in Chinese when traveling or living in China
In the course you don't have to learn Chinese characters, but it's strongly recommended to do it.
Let’s have some fun and learn Mandarin Chinese together!
Instructor Details
- 4.8 Rating
6,169 Reviews
Kamil Domanski
I’m Kamil and I’m a language tutor based in China. I can speak 4 languages now including Mandarin Chinese. Learning and teaching languages are my biggest hobbies, but It wasn’t always like this. In my middle school, my English was one of the worst. My English language teacher told my parents, that I just don’t have talent for learning languages and I need to accept it. One year after, my English was best in my class. What happened then? Well, I didn’t spend a single second learning English at home, I just met some English-speaking friends online and I wanted to communicate with them. At first I was using an online translator responding them like: „My doesn’t understind”, but after couple of months I realized that I don’t even need to use translator anymore. This experience taught me, that the best way of learning languages is learning like children; make mistakes, guess how to say something, listen to the others and copy them.
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Reviews
By Lane Ferm on 6/21/2025
GREAT COURSE. Using the scientific method is so important. Proven to learn easier and faster. I've taken around 20 courses and this is one of the best. Definitely recommend. Do you have a Vietnamese course ??
By Zeynep Melis Akçin on 1/13/2025
Started from the bottom and now I can express myself easily. I enjoyed the course, and I'm planning to continue with HSK4. Thank you so much for your efforts and making me like Chinese. What I can suggest is, more resources may be better. Such as flashcards, more worksheets and Hanzi writing sheets for every lesson. Other than that everything was fine.
By Jack Villanueva on 11/10/2024
I like the way the teacher present this story. It's very helpful and easy to understand. If there is one thing that I can suggest to improve, it is the letters and characters in the presentation. It seems not clear visually. A good thing to do is to make it a littler darker or clearer.
By Elaine Ribeiro on 5/24/2024
Estou gostando bastante do curso, tenho estudado todos os dias e aprendi bastante, agradeço muito a professora que se esforça bastante para ensinar o conteúdo, que é bem difícil por ser totalmente diferente das nossas linguas ocidentais. Agradeço muito pelo excelente trabalho!
By David Hoy on 1/7/2024
This course has successfully helped me gradually increase my knowledge and understanding of the Chinese language. I struggled with HSK 2, but by the end of that level, I felt like I had significantly increased my comprehension and had now gotten to the point where I felt that I can understand sentences flexibly. The way this course is structured has helped guide me from beginner to intermediate very well, thank you!
By Vyacheslav Zgordan on 11/18/2023
The course was very engaging, I like the fact there is a lot of speaking and listening practice and possibilities to build sentences yourself. The teacher answered tons of my questions in the QA section. Thank you.
By Rossis Galván Espinosa on 4/29/2022
It was worth every single penny you pay for. It’s too cheap even. The content is great. It has short yet engaging lessons full of vocabulary and grammar. The best part is that I never felt overwhelmed or bored with the course. It was just perfect for me. The teaching style, the exercises,everything was spot on. Thank you so much for making this course!
By Christopher Carr on 2/11/2022
Integrated this course in with my tutoring & it worked pretty well. The course was well presented in short parts digestable & just hard enough to get your thinking. Got 17 wrong in the final test HSK 3 which I'm pretty happy with. 谢谢你们。 I hope we get a HSK 4 coureware like this. Cheers Chris
By Juanjo G on 11/30/2020
hi there, I started a year ago by myself learning characters, the meaning, pinying and easy sentences and with that course in a week and a half could make a deep review easily and start learning expressions and reading / understanding HSK3 short histories. Great job! Thanks a lot!
By Takapon on 7/7/2020
日本人で中国語ニーハオ、シェイシェイしかわからないレベルから始めました。レッスンの進むスピードがちょうどいいのでノートを取りながら、受けられます。(たまに止めてます。)I'm an American, How are you?, I'm Jhon などのレベルから勉強できるので本当の初心者も安心してできると思います。 品詞のなら並び方が英語と同じなので、英語ができる人は英語で学ぶ方が馴染みやすいかもしれません。
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 96 / 100






